Thanks for the reply John. Although I envy you for being able to go the games, I understand the mixed feelings you might have about paying for some of the performances in these big games.

From television it looked similar to what you summarized. Although I think Ozil appeared a bit unlucky with his team mates in as far as some of his passes being squandered.

Your summary could have easily been of an other Arsenal game though and that is the worry for me.

IMO the best game we played as a collective, maybe not the prettiest, was against City. We seemed to press early, move up and down the pitch as a collective, not leaving big spaces between our lines for the opponents to take advantage of and maintained focus pretty much through out the game. It almost felt a little like Barca and Bayern play as a collective and press high on the pitch. But then we never seem to play like that again despite having shown we are capable of it.

By now you know I don't think highly of Giroud and I hope we will add some depth at his position this summer, now that it seems likely Wenger won't spend on a top DM thanks to the impressive debut season of Coqleulin.

As weak as it sounds, I think the ref for the return leg of the Monaco game is going to be the determining factor. Will he allow Monaco to foul us out of our rhythm or will he hand out some early yellows to give us a chance?

I was at the game and what I saw was:
1. The final ball. It just wasn't there. It just never worked for us.
2. Giroud was well off his game. He has apologised for this, and must make amends in the next game, or run the risk of being labelled forever a big game failure.
3. Mertesacker was also off his game. He ventured too far out and lost too many challenges.
4. Ozil was ineffective. He kept passing sideways or backwards and kept the ball too long. This slowed our game and allowed Monaco to get back in position.

In the end we just went mad and left our defences wide open for the third.

I've got a few more games to go to before the end of the season, but if we don't beat Liverpool, I may just give 'A' Games a miss. I've seen us draw against Spurs and lose against Utd and Monaco this season so far. £66 a ticket for that isn't worth it.

I hope the £40 per ticket I've paid for the West Ham game delivers good value.

I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas with family and friends. I am planning to keep January dry. Not only does my liver need to rest, but my wallet took a big hit throughout December too!

No doubt many would have been delighted, bemused and frustrated in equal measure by their teams performances over the festive period.

The mid-season sales open tomorrow. I for one can't wait to see what efforts are made to strengthen our team.

4th and progress in the CL will only be possible with at least two new signings.

Wilshere has been injured since, what, October? Until he has a good stretch of games but no improvement I maintain he has bags of potential. Until his latest injury, his form had been decent, though inconsistent. He looked like he had improved on last year. He's also only just turned 23, so he's got plenty of time to sort himself out. I don't think you can really write off a footballer's career until at least late 20s and even then some players make extraordinary leaps in the space of just a few months. But with his profile from an early age, I accept Wilshere really is running out of time to keep himself fit, show some form and actually develop as a player.

I will agree several things with anyone:
1) he's clearly a stupid little khunt, though that's basically par for a PL footballer
2) if he keeps getting injured potential, etc is entirely meaningless. RVP managed multiple seasons with injury after injury, but I don't think we have the patience for that with Wilshere.
3) he shouldn't be walking into the England team just because he's Wilshere, a press darling and has "potential". He does actually have to do something.

But I've seen nothing to discourage my belief that (a) he is highly talented and has all the right attributes to be the best English midfielder over the next decade (I actually think Wilshere and Henderson could be a formidable partnership and (b) his skills are almost unique amongst English footballers where we have an overflow of physical grafters, which makes him a footballer of the future rather than of the past.

All that being said, his attitude stinks and his rate of development over the last few years is extremely disappointing.

I guess the reason this board is so empty is partly because there is nothing new to say about Arsenal that has not been said for the last 7 or 8 years.

It can happen you have a poor game, although it happens far too often to a team with out talent, but with a few leaders on the pitch last night does not happen. To me we lacked leaders more than anything, Leaders would have stopped this running around like a headless chicken and taken a 2-0 or 2-1 defeat.

We have too many players who go missing in the big games and to me Giroud has always been one of them. He is ok against smaller teams but he has very little technique and control.

I thought Ozil was not as bad as the press made him out and many of his passes got wasted by his team mates, but he will never be defensively what Sanchez is. He is a liability for a team with weak defending.

The way we are playing at the moment, I've pencilled in a win for us at City. Foolish? Well you might have said that had I predicted a 3 nil win against Stoke. But seriously, its no great challenge the way city are playing and it would be no shock. Defeat? Well that wouldn't be a shock either now would it? Best of luck boys.

Perhaps they were probably just Mancrapper Ushyted fans pretending to be Arsenal fans.

I'm sure Le Poof and that soft old fairy from Cairns had a couple of ID's where they tried to pose as Arsenal supporters so that they could stir the shyte in these forums. The pair of them would spout more shyte about clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea than they ever could over Mancrapper Ushyted.

Both have gone, driven away and history now, so loads of LMFAO over that one!

Top 3 finish would be great and arguably and sadly the best progress we can now hope for. The FA cup would be a nice consolation price.

I would take top 3 over FA cup and 4th. I think a top 3 would help in the summer recruitment since it guarantees CL football and top players nowadays tend to want that guarantee. I hate waiting till the after CL pre-qualifying to see if we sign top players.

Having said that 5th at this point is as likely as 3rd or 2nd IMO. At least no more pointless CL football to tire our squad.

Guess this was a fair result. Not impressed with the way this game was managed by Wenger. Why not give Campbell a chance at some point? Three small players like Carzorla, Rosicky and Alexis where never likely to bother the Southampton defense. 4th will be harder than many think and I still don't think we will finish 4th this season. And the bad news is that we didn't lose this game in defensive midfield. We were just out played by a better prepared side and more disciplined side.

The A hole Butchy will also be shyteing her knickers to hear that there's three geordie pals of mine currently 'down under' doing some building in Cairns, the plot thickens...and you gotta larf, really, you do!

Happy New Year John and those few left on this board. I think Podolski makes us weaker in theory only. Wenger refused to play him and even chose Sanogo ahead of him.

Personally I don't think Wenger will do what it takes in the window and on the pitch. I also think he is burning out Sanchez by playing him way too much. A few weeks ago Wenger admitted Sanchez is playing in the red zone, yet with the exception of 1 CL game he has not rested him. This could come back to haunt us. Also when Ozil returns we will be even weaker defensively. So my prediction that we finish outside of the top 4 still stands.

We don't even have the budget to buy the players we need. IMO we need Schneiderlin and a top quality CB.

TBH even with our injured players fit we didn't impress.

I agree with Jacks that it was a nobrainer that we were not going to trouble Southampton throwing crosses into the box to Sanchez, Carzorla and Rosicky. I guess even Campbell has more physical presence than those three yet Campbell is an other player Wenger gives no minutes to get used to the PL.

I must say that in Arsenal's most productive period of outstanding form and performances of individuals, the silence on this board is baffling; to say nothing of the once loud protestations about the team and Arsene Wenger when everything they did brought some kind bleat. Now with the acclaim from the media ringing in our ears, it seems that Govinda and all have been struck dumb. Probably with astonishment that all their dire warnings of doom at the Emirates, have come to nothing. Meanwhile I'll just enjoy a chuckle at the prophets of doom. As for you John I cant believe you of all people have nothing to say!!??